You Can't Grow Up Till You Go Back Home: A Safe Journey to See Your Parents As Human

Who am I? Where am I from? What am I doing here? Family therapist William Nerin looks at these questions with a new lens in this original book about reconnecting with one's parents. This new connecting is not of a grown child to one's parent, but rather of one adult to another adult - a relationship based on shared humanity rather than on dependency needs. Once accomplished, it brings peace, understanding, and self-esteem.Nerin explains why many people are reluctant to give up their child-to-parent mindsets and feelings. He offers imaginative ways to see parents as human, especially if they are inaccessible due to death or an inability to talk about such matters. He shows how to converse with parents in non-threatening ways in order to understand them as individuals with pasts of their own. He helps the reader to "revisit" family roots and come to an emotional understanding of how that person called mother or father is indeed "just like me." He shows how this "going home again" in a new way may be the final stage of human personality development, and demonstrates how to achieve it.Anyone interested in solving the mystery of their family roots, healing wounds, and gaining a greater sense of self-esteem will find this book about reconnecting with one's parents - or other important family members - filled with insights, recognizable stories, and practical advice.